


Just One Dance

by artikgato



Series: Souyowrimo 2017 [6]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, M/M, Prince/Bodyguard AU, he's okay, offscreen yukichie, very flowery language, yosuke gets stabbed a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 12:17:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13099935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artikgato/pseuds/artikgato
Summary: “Surely dancing with your own bodyguard won’t look favorable,” Yosuke replied.“Nonsense,” Souji replied, with the same mischievous grin he always wore.“Isn’t there one of the ladies you’d like to favor with a second dance? Perhaps get to know better before you take her as your wife?” Yosuke asked, reminding Souji of the purpose of the entire night. Souji rolled his eyes.“You dance better than all of them,” Souji insisted. Yosuke barely managed to avoid laughing.





	Just One Dance

**Author's Note:**

> This is for day 24 of the Souyowrimo challenge I'm doing over on my tumblr (I'm way, way, WAY behind). I decided to post this one here, separately, to keep my tumblr kind of safe-for-work. If you want to read the rest, you can find them over on my tumblr (artikgato) under the souyowrimo 2017 tag!

”Would it kill you to have some fun once in awhile?” Souji asked him, and Yosuke sighed. He’d had this conversation with the young prince before, and both his answer and the outcome were always the same - and yet, he still had to at least  _ try _ to deny him. To ‘keep up appearances’ or something.

“Yes, milord, it might. And it might get you killed too, that’s rather the point,” he answered. Souji laughed. 

“I’ve danced with every eligible lady here. Even some of the non-eligible ones. I’m growing rather bored of them,” the silver-haired prince answered. He was rather famous - some would say infamous - for pulling stunts like this. In the days leading up to the ball it had seemed like the whole kingdom had been clamoring with speculation over which of the young ladies attending the ball he would choose to dance with first. It was, after all, a ball specifically for him to decide on his own bride-to-be, so the first dance would be a crucial one.

He’d defied all of their expectations and chosen to dance with his young cousin Nanako.

After that he  _ had _ danced with all of the single, eligible ladies in attendance - every single one, Yosuke had been keeping track - but he’d also been haphazardly sprinkling in married women, too, just to keep everyone on their toes. Yosuke had been predicting that he was going to start dancing with men soon, and he was right. He’d had a hunch that he would be first, and again he was right. Souji did this all the time. The polite, well-educated, handsome bachelor prince was also a huge prankster. Despite this, he was universally well-liked both by his subjects and by royal society in general. 

“Surely dancing with your own bodyguard won’t look favorable,” Yosuke replied.

“Nonsense,” Souji replied, with the same mischievous grin he always wore. 

“Isn’t there one of the ladies you’d like to favor with a second dance? Perhaps get to know better before you take her as your wife?” Yosuke asked, reminding Souji of the purpose of the entire night. Souji rolled his eyes.

“You dance better than all of them,” Souji insisted. Yosuke barely managed to avoid laughing.

“Only because you’re used to dancing with me,” he pointed out. Souji was undeterred.

“Just one dance, Yosuke,” he said. Yosuke shook his head.

“I need to be able to watch for danger,” he replied. “That’s more important than ever tonight, milord.” 

It was quite upsetting for both of them, but they had been warned that there could be a real, actual plot against Souji’s life tonight. It seemed far fetched: who could hate  _ Souji _ of all people enough to plot to kill him? But Yosuke took his job very, very seriously, and he was determined to protect the prince at all costs. Even if the plot was just a silly rumor or a prank. 

“And who the better to protect me than my own dance partner?” Souji asked. Yosuke smiled, ducking his head to try to hide it. He knew the steps well enough that he would be able to keep an eye on the entire crowd without any missteps - and Souji knew that, too. Their conversation up to this point had really all been formalities.

“I suppose you’re right,” he answered. Souji held out his hand, and Yosuke took it. “One dance, milord.”

The music was light and cheerful but on the slower side, so they fell into a familiar dance that the two of them had done together what felt like a thousand times. Yosuke had been groomed to be Prince Souji’s bodyguard from a young age, and so the two had practically grown up together. What now felt like ages ago, Souji had begun dragging Yosuke with him everywhere, into all of his classes and lessons and royal appointments, and Yosuke felt like he knew far too much about all of the things a prince would know. Dancing was no exception - nearly as soon as he was allowed to, Souji had dragged Yosuke onto the dance floor with him during practice. Yosuke was the son of a noble family, though not nearly as high-ranked as Souji of course, so his superiors had thought it wise for him to learn dance anyway. And while he  _ had _ learned the ‘leading’ part of most dances, he had definitely learned the ‘following’ parts more thoroughly. 

The two of them stepped and turned and twirled together, and as much as Yosuke would have liked to keep his attention on his young master’s face, he had to be looking elsewhere. The usual palace retinue, even the King and Queen, didn’t look even a little bit fazed by Souji suddenly dancing with his own bodyguard of course, since this was far from the first time. Some of the ladies that had come from outside the kingdom looked a little confused, but that was to be expected. 

Things were normal for most of the song. It wasn’t until the dance was nearly at its end that Yosuke noticed anything weird. He was glad that they had chosen such an easy dance, really, because it allowed him to put nearly his full attention on the crowd and not the Prince, and that allowed him to notice someone moving towards them a little too quickly for it to be anything but dangerous. He planted a foot and pulled Souji so that the Prince was shielded behind him, reaching for the hidden blades he was carrying. He managed, barely, to unsheathe the knives and cross them, catching a sword that had been headed straight for Souji’s back just moments before. Metal clashing against metal rang out, and everyone stopped moving. There were panicked screams a second later.

“Tch, damn it,” the attacker snarled, hopping backwards and raising his sword again. Yosuke got a good look at him, and it seemed that Souji did too, because Souji gasped behind him.

“Adachi? W-why would you-?” he asked. The attacker, who was one of the palace guards that served Souji’s uncle, grimaced in response. 

“Shut the hell up, you damn brat!” the guard growled in response. He dashed forward with his sword again, slashing like he was trying to aim over Yosuke’s shoulder to get to Souji, but Yosuke blocked him with his knives, pushing his sword away once again. Adachi glowered, pissed at Yosuke’s ability to defend against him. He was clearly a skilled swordsman: he was in the royal guard, after all, and several years more experienced than Yosuke was. But the key difference was that all Yosuke  _ had _ to do here was defend. Attacking wasn’t in his job description at all. He could see the rest of the Royal Guard advancing through the crowd, and knew that they would be able to capture him soon enough. So, like he’d been trained to do for as long as he could remember, he defended and deflected and parried, and kept himself exactly in front of Souji, ready and willing to take any blow in place of his Prince. 

Just as two other members of the Royal Guard descended on him, Adachi lunged forward and gave one last final, desperate attempt to hurt Souji. He went as far as to grab one of Yosuke’s knives with his  _ bare hand _ , stabbing one-handed with his sword and aiming for Yosuke’s side. Yosuke couldn’t effectively parry with only one knife, so he dropped it immediately and used his freed hand to shove Souji away, managing to twist enough that the sword only grazed against his side instead of stabbing  _ into _ him. The sharp sword still cut through the layers of cloth on his side and left a large gash in his skin, but, honestly, Yosuke had gotten worse injuries on  _ accident _ .

Adachi’s sword clattered to the floor as the two guards seized him by the arms. Adachi snarled and protested as he was dragged away, but Yosuke couldn’t hear any of it, because a panicked Souji was suddenly filling his field of vision.

“Yosuke! You’re bleeding...did he stab you? Oh no, how bad is it?” Souji asked, prying his hands away, which he’d immediately clamped over the wound to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t bad, Yosuke could tell, but it would probably bleed a lot if they didn’t do something soon. 

The next several hours were a blur. He was aware of being taken into the palace infirmary and the wound being treated and bandaged by the head nurse Uehara. The rest was a blur of faces - his parents looking concerned and relieved, the King and Queen and Souji’s uncle and cousin thanking him for defending the prince, three members of the Royal Guard standing watch the entire time and, of course, Souji. Souji had refused to leave his side the entire time, and Yosuke knew that was foolish, but was also very grateful. He would have probably made himself sick worrying about whether Souji was safe otherwise. It was stupid - anyone else on the Royal Guard could have protected Souji better than an injured Yosuke could - but he was still grateful nonetheless. 

After several hours in the infirmary, Yosuke’s injury was seemed non-threatening enough that he was discharged and instructed to return the following morning to have his bandages changed. Yosuke wasn’t surprised at all when, instead of allowing him to go to his own chambers to rest, Souji insisted on him staying with him. He still needed to put up at least some token resistance.

“My Prince,” he started, in his usual exasperated tone, “I really think that you should have someone uninjured protecting you.”

“They can be outside the room,” Souji insisted, attempting to drag him into his bedchambers, but not forcefully enough to hurt him. “I can’t trust anybody other than you to defend me, Yosuke.”

“Milord…” Yosuke sighed, caving in and letting himself be dragged in. It wasn’t like it was the first time he had been in Souji’s private chambers - not by a long shot. Souji had been a fan of bending and breaking the rules as he saw fit from a young age, so he’d often convinced Yosuke to sleep over with him when they were younger, and then managed to weasel him out of the punishment by saying that he’d insisted on it as the Prince. It wasn’t like a bodyguard could say no to his Prince, right?

What he truly hadn’t been expecting was for Souji to push him to sit down on  _ his bed _ .

“Milord?” Yosuke asked, hesitant. Every other time Yosuke had been “coerced” to sleep in Souji’s room with him, they’d simply stolen a futon from one of the storerooms for him to sleep on. He’d  _ never _ been on Souji’s bed, even just to sit. But Souji sat down heavily beside him, buried his face in his hands, and started to  _ cry _ , and all thoughts of how weird the situation was evaporated. “Milord?” 

“Yosuke,” Souji croaked through his tears, “I...you got hurt protecting me.”

“Yes, that is my duty,” Yosuke replied. He hesitantly reached up and put his hands on Souji’s shoulders, patting him in what he hoped was a calming but also appropriate manner. He hadn’t seen Souji cry in a long, long time and it was, frankly, a little scary.

“You could have died for me,” Souji sniffed, leaning to rest his forehead against one of Yosuke’s shoulders, and all but forcing Yosuke to wrap his arms around his shoulders. 

“That is also my duty,” Yosuke reminded him, softly. Souji’s body was wracked with a spasm as he sobbed, hard. 

“I could have died if you hadn’t been dancing with me,” Souji continued, shaking. “ _ We _ could have died today, Yosuke. I…” he trailed off, shuddering. He sat back, keeping his face lowered as he finally reached up to dry his own tears. Yosuke so desperately wanted to do it for him, but knew it would be crossing a line to touch him without his permission.

Souji finally looked up at him, and there was an intense look on his face that Yosuke had never really seen him wear before. He leaned forward into Yosuke’s personal space, and Yosuke fought to remain still, and then - oh.

Souji was kissing him. 

It was a quick, soft kiss, as if testing the waters. Yosuke felt like he couldn’t breathe, but he managed to croak out an inquisitive “milord?” before he was once again silenced by Souji’s lips. The second kiss was much more forceful, and though he wasn’t aware of consciously deciding to, he couldn’t help reciprocating. He felt himself being pushed to lay back - albeit very gently - and went all too willingly. Souji pulled away just enough to look at him, and Yosuke still felt like he couldn’t breathe, like at any moment the bubble would burst and he’d find out this was all a dream or a hallucination.

“My Prince?” he forced himself to ask. Souji let out a breathy little sigh in response.

“Just tonight...just for one night, call me Souji?” he requested, and Yosuke had to swallow past the lump in his throat to get his vocal chords to function.

“S...Souji,” he replied, and Souji smiled, dipping down to kiss him again.

“Thank you, Yosuke,” he said, when he pulled away from the kiss.

“Milord...S-souji, this is…” Yosuke started to protest, but Souji put a finger to his lips, to quiet him. 

“I don’t care,” he replied. “I don’t care what anyone else will say. I’ve wanted this for a long time.” He dipped down as if to kiss him again, but changed targets and kissed his cheek instead, trailing a line of kisses over his jaw and down his neck. “I know you feel the same, you’ve told me with everything but words.”

“I…” Yosuke quivered, hands clenching at his sides. It was true. He wanted this more than anything else in the world, and he couldn’t  _ believe _ that Souji felt the same way, but...they couldn’t. Yosuke was just a royal guard, merely a noble, and Souji was a  _ prince _ . He wasn’t supposed to feel like this - wasn’t  _ allowed _ to feel like this. As if sensing Yosuke’s hesitance, Souji pulled back from his neck and sat up a little to look him in the eyes. 

“Listen, Yosuke,” Souji said. “Soon I’ll be wed, and I’ll have to bring a woman in here and give my body to her. Before that, just once, I’d like to have the one thing forbidden to me.”

“As if I could deny you anything,” Yosuke finally said, and he couldn’t help but fall in love with Souji all over again at the way he smiled down at him.

Souji was gentle and careful as he undid buttons and pulled Yosuke’s clothes off of him, especially careful around the bandages wrapped around his midsection. If he was nervous or hesitant in the slightest it didn’t show. The same couldn’t be said for Yosuke - he’d seen the Prince nearly naked on many occasions, but when Souji stood up to undress himself, Yosuke couldn’t help averting his eyes. It was ingrained in him as a servant to royalty.

“Look at me, Yosuke,” Souji said, and Yosuke swallowed, because obeying orders from his Prince was ingrained in him as well. In the end his desire to satisfy the wishes of his Prince and his own curiosity won out, and he looked. 

The glow from the lanterns adorning the walls gave the entire room a golden glow, and Souji’s body was no exception. He looked breathtaking, to be honest, with his pale, unblemished skin and striking silver eyes and hair. Souji knelt on the bed again, straddling Yosuke’s legs and leaning down to kiss him, and the difference from when they’d still been wearing clothes was unbelievable. It felt electric, where they were pressed against each-other - skin against skin, and nothing more. It was a feeling that was easy to get intoxicated by, and Yosuke let himself go. 

Souji just kept kissing him, and Yosuke lost himself in the feeling, only barely managing to maintain a level of awareness of his surroundings thanks to his years of training. He noticed Souji reach over and open a drawer in his nightstand, shuffling around inside of it before withdrawing a small glass bottle. Yosuke didn’t have to guess what was inside. He laid back and tried to focus his breathing and relax his body in anticipation of what surely was going to happen...except that, it didn’t. Souji didn’t push his legs apart and he didn’t feel slick fingers between his legs, like he was expecting. When he started to hear Souji making little gasps, accompanied by slick noises, he blinked his eyes open in surprise, to find Souji on his knees on the bed in front of him, one hand bracing himself and the other between his own legs, thrusting slick fingers into himself. 

“M-milord, I-” he started, sitting up a little in shock, but Souji looked up, met his eyes, and shook his head. Yosuke fell quiet, still in disbelief.

“You’re injured,” Souji pointed out. “And...this is what I truly want. I know it seems laughable that a Prince would want to submit himself like this but, I...” As he spoke he kept thrusting his fingers in and out of his body, going from tentative to forceful rather quickly. 

“J-just because I’m injured-” Yosuke started to protest, but Souji shook his head.

“You don’t get it. I’ve wanted things this way for a long time, Yosuke,” Souji explained, and Yosuke let himself fall back against the bed, still in disbelief. 

“...oh,” he managed. Souji laughed, and Yosuke inclined his head a little to look at him. He looked absolutely stunning like that, mouth tilted up and eyes practically glowing with mirth in the torchlight, body flushed and bared and only for him, impaled on his own fingers - Yosuke tried desperately to commit the scene to memory, knowing that after tonight, memory would be all that he could have of his beloved Prince. 

Souji withdrew his fingers, and reached out with slick hands to spread the oil up and down Yosuke’s member. The quick touch was like nothing Yosuke had ever felt before, electric and amazing and  _ hot _ , and it left him wanting more. Souji straddled his hips, looking almost impatient. One hand braced on Yosuke’s hip bone and the other gripped Yosuke’s dick, guiding it into himself. And if Yosuke had thought that Souji’s quick, gentle touch earlier had been amazing, it was  _ nothing _ in comparison. He groaned and let his head fall back, eyes closed again, and tried not to get overwhelmed by the feeling. He found himself opening his eyes and looking back up, however, when he heard Souji make a kind of hissing noise.

“Milord,” he gasped, “don’t go so fast, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“I’ve waited so long, Yosuke, I can’t be patient anymore,” Souji said in refusal. Yosuke frowned, and his hands left the bed to reach up and gently grab Souji’s hips, stalling his descent. 

“We’ve got all night,” he coaxed, thumbs rubbing slow, gentle circles into the flesh of Souji’s hips.

“Alright,” Souji agreed. Yosuke kept his hands where they were, but relaxed his grip enough that Souji could move his hips again. He continued to slide down onto Yosuke’s erection, though much slower and more carefully. When Souji finally sat fully down on him, panting in exertion as he tried to get used to the feeling, Yosuke’s mind was reeling. His Prince was so wonderfully tight and warm, and the sight of him impaled on his cock was one that he was sure he would remember for years to come, possibly for the rest of his life. 

Souji’s hands tensed against Yosuke’s stomach, pushing himself up a little and letting himself fall. Yosuke kept his hands where they were, still holding onto Souji’s hips, and he revelled in the idea that he was allowed to touch the Prince like this, for this long. Souji’s rising and falling motions eventually went from choppy and experimental to smooth and rhythmic. Yosuke just laid below him and focused on trying not to move much, aware of every time he tried to flex his stomach muscles thanks to his injury. He watched, nearly hypnotised, as his Prince and dearest friend bounced up and down on his hardness, watched the muscles in his legs and abdomen working, watched his eyes flutter closed and blink open, warm and hazy with lust - watched his untouched erection as it bounced around and leaked precum. 

Slowly, cautiously, Yosuke removed one hand from Souji’s hips and wrapped it around his Prince’s erection. Souji threw his head back and moaned, thrusting into his grip with a desperation that he’d never seen him wear before. His legs buckled, and he all but collapsed down onto Yosuke, only managing to catch himself at the last minute and not fall completely onto him, sparing his injured side. 

Despite the change in position, Souji kept going almost immediately, rocking back onto Yosuke’s erection and thrusting forward into his grip. Up close, Yosuke could see the utter bliss on Souji’s face, and he was proud and honored that his body could do something like this for his Prince. Experimentally, Yosuke tightened his grip on Souji’s hip and thrust his hips up when Souji rocked back, and the effect was instantaneous. Souji cried out, and Yosuke could see the surprise and pleasure on his face. Yosuke did it again and again, matching the rhythm he was using to stroke Souji’s erection, and Souji trembled, hips slowly going still. 

Apparently, one of Yosuke’s thrusts hit him just where he needed it to, because it had the young Prince throwing his head back and wailing out Yosuke’s name.

“M-Milord, not so loud, the guards!” Yosuke shushed him, panicked. Souji looked back down at him, embarrassed, and bit his lip with a nod. But evidently Yosuke kept hitting that sweet spot inside him, because he kept making little groans and whimpers, eventually burying his face in Yosuke’s neck to muffle the sounds. Yosuke could feel the way his erection was twitching against his palm, and he could tell that his Prince was close to coming. He felt Souji open his mouth and press hot, open-mouth kisses to the side of his neck as they moved together, kisses eventually turning into sucking. Yosuke knew he’d have a hickey in the morning, probably several, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care at this point. He felt like he was going to burst at any moment, but desperately held himself back - the Prince’s orgasm was more important to him. 

“Y-Yosuke...Yosuke,” the Prince groaned against his neck, and Yosuke had never heard his name spoken with such want and need behind it before.

“Milord?” he asked.

“Call me by my name,” the Prince whimpered in response, in a small voice, and Yosuke understood. He turned his head as much as he could to get his mouth as close to the Prince’s ear as possible.

“Souji,” he said, clear but not loud, and punctuated with a hard thrust inside him. Souji gasped in response, tensing up as his entire body shuddered, and Yosuke could feel him coming. His erection twitched in Yosuke’s grip as he spilled hot wetness onto his stomach, and his body clamped down on his hardness, spasming and twitching around him. 

Yosuke stopped thrusting immediately, hands falling away from Souji’s hip and erection to clench into the blanket below him, using every ounce of willpower in his body not to follow his Prince into his own orgasm. He fully intended on pulling out and coming later, into his own hands, as it wasn’t within his rights to defile the Prince that way, but it seemed the Prince himself had other ideas. He pushed back against Yosuke’s dick, grinding against it, and lifted his face out of Yosuke’s shoulder.

“Come inside me, my dear Yosuke,” Souji said, and the look of post-orgasmic bliss on his face was so enticing that he couldn’t refuse. Not that he could refuse a direct order from his Prince in the first place. He let go of the blanket and reached up to loop his arms around Souji’s shoulders, dragging him down into a tender kiss as he finally let himself come, hard and deep within his beloved Prince. The feeling was so overwhelming that he felt like he was drowning, with the man above him his only means of salvation. 

They kissed for what felt like forever, but when Souji finally pulled away it felt like it hadn’t been nearly long enough. Souji pushed himself up with shaky arms, and Yosuke shuddered as he felt his softening erection slip out of him. He couldn’t help watching the trickle of cum slide down Souji’s thighs -  _ his _ come on the  _ Prince’s _ thighs. Souji moved just far enough that he could lay down on his side, facing Yosuke.

“How is your wound?” he asked.

“My wound?” Yosuke croaked, and everything still felt hazy. He had nearly forgotten about it. He looked down and noticed a bit of pink starting to seep into the outer layer of bandages, and grimaced. “I think it may have reopened.”

“My apologies,” Souji replied, sounding truly apologetic. “I...should have waited for your wound to heal, but I was so tired of waiting, and...”

“No apologies needed, milord,” Yosuke replied, voice soft and affectionate. “From the moment I was born, my body was yours. I would endure any injury or punishment to keep you safe and…” here he paused, carefully debating his words. “...satisfied.”

“And I am quite satisfied,” Souji purred. He leaned across the distance between them and gave Yosuke another soft, tender kiss, before continuing. “And I am sure that you’ll be satisfying me quite a lot in the future.”

“But...milord, you will have a wife soon,” Yosuke couldn’t help pointing out. Souji smirked.

“I had quite an interesting conversation with one of my dance partners this evening,” the Prince started. “Surely you remember her - the heiress of Amagi?”

“The hot springs country?” Yosuke asked, and Souji nodded.

“As you’ll recall, I danced with her the longest. We had a very lively conversation about our servants. You see, Miss Amagi also has a bodyguard that has been serving her since birth. Do you remember the young lady with the short brown hair that entered with the Amagi family? That’s her,” Souji narrated. 

“I do remember her,” Yosuke confirmed, confused. 

“It seems that Miss Amagi and I have quite a lot in common,” Souji explained. He leaned over and kissed Yosuke again, for emphasis. “Do you understand?”

Yosuke did understand, and he was reasonably sure he wasn’t misinterpreting what Souji was saying: the Amagi heir was in love with her bodyguard. And she’d shared that information with Souji, willingly. 

“Will you marry Miss Amagi?” Yosuke asked, and Souji smirked again.

“It would be one of the most beneficial marriages for our kingdom,” Souji replied. “We’ve had a good relationship with the Amagi kingdom for many years, and we could provide them with protection if a war were to break out. They grow some of the most rare and delicate crops of all the land, and so they would be one of the most targeted areas.”

“So the marriage is politically convenient,” Yosuke said. He bit his lip. “But-” Souji held up a hand to stop him.

“If it were only one of us having an affair with our bodyguard, that could easily turn into a disastrous scandal. But if it were both, it would be all too easy for one to testify on the other’s behalf...if we were ever found out, in the first place.”

“I...see…” Yosuke replied. 

“I know this is a lot to take in,” Souji said.

“Yeah,” Yosuke sighed in response, looking over at his Prince. “But married or not, I am still yours, my Prince.” Souji nodded, a sleepy, sated look coming over his features. Yosuke wanted more than anything to join his Prince in sleep, but he still had a job to do. “Don’t fall asleep before you’ve had a bath, Milord. The morning will be unpleasant for you otherwise.”

“But I’m so comfortable,” Souji complained. Yosuke rolled his eyes and sat up, carefully, reaching for his trousers and shirt. 

“I’ll go tell the maids to draw you a bath,” he informed Souji, who frowned at him. Souji sat up as Yosuke tugged his trousers on, motioning for Yosuke to come closer to him. When he did, Souji rose off of the bed a little and looped his arms around Yosuke’s shoulders, drawing him down into a long, languid kiss. Souji drew back only just enough to look Yosuke in the face.

“Join me in the bath?” he asked, innocently, and Yosuke laughed.

“I cannot,” he said, and Souji pouted. “My injury, remember?” 

“At least let me wash you,” Souji countered, and Yosuke went bright red. His shock must have shown on his face, because Souji laughed. “Don’t act so surprised. I may be the Prince but I at least know how to wash-”

“N-no, that’s not-” Yosuke stammered, “I-I just...to be washed by the Prince, when I am but a humble bodyguard, I…”

“Your body is mine, remember?” Souji asked, cutting off Yosuke’s flustered stammering. “And you were injured protecting me. It is the least I can do.”

“O-okay,” Yosuke squeaked, and Souji let go of his shoulders, sitting back with a smile. 

“Good. Make sure to tell the maids that I want the bath extra hot tonight, okay?” he asked. Yosuke smiled and nodded, helplessly.

Souji did end up marrying the heir of the hot springs country, Yukiko Amagi. It was a lavish ceremony, full of the aesthetics and cuisine of both countries, and attended by almost a thousand guests - and nearly as many guards and soldiers. After thorough questioning, the former palace guard Tohru Adachi revealed that his attempt on the young Prince’s life had been merely his own doing, and not part of a larger plot, but there were still suspicions around his actions nonetheless. In the end, his actions had only been helpful to the young Prince and his new bride, as nobody dared to question why they would start having their personal bodyguards sleep in their chambers with them. Affections seen between Prince Souji and his bodyguard even after marriage were easily explained - they had been like this before his marriage, after all, for most of their young lives. Affections seen between the new Princess and  _ her _ bodyguard were easily explained too, as customs were surely different in the hot springs kingdom. And if there were any interesting noises coming from their bedchambers at night, well - the royal families of both kingdoms were encouraging them to produce heirs, after all.

And so they all lived happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> My roommate and beta-reader zippyelly described this as "if Jane Austen wrote smut" and I don't know how accurate that is, but that's probably the best compliment I've ever received on my fanfiction, and I'd just like to thank the Academy, and-


End file.
